Comments on: Renfroes move for summary judgment, dismissal of qui tam suit – UPDATED

By: lotus

lotus — Thu, 29 May 2008 00:13:47 +0000

And as if all that weren’t bad enough, their own momma brought Dickie Scruggs into their lives.

NOW it’s summed up. Oooof.

By: Researcher

Researcher — Wed, 28 May 2008 23:58:42 +0000

So, to sum up, the Rigsby sisters can’t use secretly copied documents because that violates confidentiality, they can’t use publicly available information because that isn’t whistleblowing, and they can’t have lawyers who have ever talked to them or to any of their former lawyers.

By: Sailor

Sailor — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:14:06 +0000

It’s kind of like the mess Eric Clark faced when he initiated a state-wide, central voter roll project. There were counties that didn’t have COMPUTERS for record storage as recently as 4 years ago…

By: NMC

NMC — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:02:32 +0000

BTW, the summary judgment is about the concept that you can’t file a qui tam suit based on information generally available to the public. This concept was already present in the prior State Farm sum. j. motion, but this one fleshes out the chronology considerably.

By: lotus

lotus — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:01:35 +0000

Thanks for the info, Ben. But aren’t there fees involved? That’s my show-stopper.

By: NMC

NMC — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:00:42 +0000

They’re supposed to be doing it, and inching toward it. Lafayette County is one of the first that has a pacer-like product available at the courthouse to look at pleadings, but it’s not online yet. You can see it in either clerk’s office, and it’s useful.

In my opinion, the interface, while a little odd, works vastly better than Pacer. However, the implementation is going to require a lot more than just setting up the software– there will have to be a commitment from clerks in each county to get the documents online. The difference between checking out a chancery case and circuit case here puts that in stark contrast, and I can’t imagine how they are going to deal with this given the volume of paper and disarray I’ve seen in the circuit clerk in Hinds Cty

It took the federal courts several years to get theirs up to speed, with a well-orchestrated top-down national commitment from the AO. Is that really going to happen with the Miss. Sup. Ct.? Don’t the lawyers here find that the state-of-records vary wildly and scarily from one clerks office to the next?

By: Sailor

Sailor — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:36:30 +0000

Excuse me if I’m wrong, Ben, but I thought establishing just such a system in Miss. has been a number one priority of Justice Smith, who claims Miss. will be the first state to have such, once it’s up and running about a year from now. Can’t find his quote, but it was recent.

By: DeltaNative

DeltaNative — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:34:46 +0000

Nevermind.

By: Ben Cole

Ben Cole — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:05:58 +0000

Lotus: You have just as much access to the federal judiciary’s PACER system as does bellsouth and everyone else with a PC and an Internet connection. Google for “pacer service center” and follow the guides for establishing a log-in and password. That gives you complete access to all documents–pleadings, motions, appearances,orders, judgments, etc.–filed in every federal case, civil and criminal, in every federal court in the nation. Excellent system. Mississippi state courts could easily replicate the PACER system if only there were some leadership in our state’s judiciary and bars.

“Forget it, Mack. It’s Mississippi.”